1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a power supply circuit and a test apparatus. In particular, the present invention relates to a power supply circuit that supplies power to a load, such as a semiconductor circuit, and a test apparatus that tests an electronic device, such as a semiconductor circuit.
2. Related Art
Conventionally, a power supply circuit is mounted on a test apparatus testing an electronic device to supply power to the electronic device. The power supply circuit has a driver section that generates a load voltage or a load current that is applied to the electronic device and also a power supply for driving the driver section as in, for example, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2006-155419.
The driver section uses the power from the power supply to generate the load current supplied to the electronic device. In other words, the test apparatus employs a power source that can generate the power supply current according to a maximum current of the load current supplied to the electronic device.
If the power supply corresponds to a temporary maximum current of the current supplied to the electronic device, however, the current capacitance of the power supply is undesirably increased. This increase leads to inefficiency because the current capacitance of the power supply becomes needlessly high.